Thank you for zooming into this important Club Event:

We were hoping that this Club Forum would be face to face at the Club. However, we concluded that would not be possible due to the continuing covid pandemic risk. Thank you for the understanding and good humour you have shown during these periods of restriction and / or lockdowns or the last 20 months.

The Covid Group, and other committees over the last year, have been working very hard on our behalf and we all must extend a big vote of thanks to these volunteers and those members that volunteer in so many ways, together with our great band of Night Watch Team Members.

Thank you to our team of staff colleagues for all their efforts during the last year. So many members have been communicating with me recently and asking me to pass on sincere thanks for “often going that extra mile, particularly in the these difficult times.”

So, now to the Club Forum:

Those member new to the forum process: It is held at this time of year to give you, the members, the opportunity to ask questions, put your comments and observations forward.

Tonight we have on the panel with me, Adam Deary, Vice Commodore Yard & Haven, Tracey Lee, Rear Commodore Sailing & On The Water Activities and Kate Mellor, Honorary Treasurer, together with Mark Fulton, our General Manager.

Some questions have been submitted already and thank you for those.
There will be an opportunity for you to submit your questions live via the ZOOM chat box and this evening’s ZOOM Administrator, Mark Fulton, will help us through the ZOOM process. Lorna Whitehead is also assisting with the handling of the questions.

To start us off, The Flag Officers will each speak for a few minutes on their respective areas of responsibility and interest within the Club; looking at the recent past and turning to look towards the future.

If we need to research to give the answer, we will get back to however raised the question, after the Forum.

As in previous Forums, we do not keep minutes of the Forum, but Mark does keep notes so that we can capture key points and raise them at General Committee for consideration or / and review.

Our Annual General Meeting is approaching:

Our AGM lead-in is almost upon us and details of that will be soon sent to you. That will be an opportunity for you to consider putting a proposition forward for a possible change our Rules and / or Bye-laws. Additionally, you may feel the time is right for you to consider standing for General Committee. Please talks me about this prospect, if I can help at all. If you feel the time is now right for you to stand, why not put your name forward?

Now to over to our Flag Officers….

After weeks of practice, the Poole YC Commodore's team won the first 3 of a maximum of 5 races against the team from Parkstone Yacht Club. Both teams sail an Elan 333 in the annual match racing competition, and all members of the team must be under 18 years of age on December 27th.

Oli Hale was helm for the Poole YC team and he and his teammates demonstrated a sophisticated application of the match racing rules.

In the first race, the Poole boat used their starboard advantage at the start to force the Parkstone boat away from the start line, then tacking back to the start and maintaining their lead with close covering of the Parkstone boat.

In the second race, having rounded the windward mark neck and neck, the Poole boat was unable to raise their spinnaker. But the Parkstone boat was windward of the Poole boat, so Oli turned the Poole boat to windward, forcing the Parkstone boat to luff and ultimately incur a penalty. This meant that still without a spinnaker for the downwind leg, Poole won the 2nd race.

For the 3rd race, both boats used the racing tactics more recognisable to those of us who do fleet racing, crossing each other on opposite tacks although the Poole boat again used legitimate luffing to gain an advantage on the downwind leg.

The racing team were Oli Hale (helm), Amber Hale, Tom Clayton, Millie Whittaker, Tom Cluett, Lily Eyre, Toby Griffen, Lucy Griffen, Chris Nunn and Ethan Topping, with Lottie Eyre and Annabelle Topping as reserves. Becky Russell and Beth Prior were unable to take part due to falling ill with covid.

All in all, it was a fantastic sporting event and John Yonwin and I were both thrilled to see the teamwork and commitment from Poole YC: from the sailors themselves, the team of coaches who have been training with them, the boat owners who so generously lend their Elans for practise and the race itself, Rob Kemp for donating the sails and all the many family members and supporters who came out in support of the competition.

Tracey Lee

Rear Commodore Sailing and On the Water Activity